Take a Breath of Fresh Air

AIR QUALITY (PM2.5 AQI as of 8:00AM)
Good to moderate for all reporting stations

Cleaner air is here! A weather system is currently approaching from the west. With a strong ridge to the east, however, the system will end up riding up and over it. Still, we will see some indirect impacts including a cleansing southwesterly flow and potentially a marine layer-deepening drizzle event in the Thursday/Friday timeframe. The southwesterly winds will become more dominate aloft over the next couple of days and will keep pushing lofted smoke away from us. These winds will also draw in some tropical moisture which will appear as high clouds Thursday. The marine layer, which has been polluted by smoke over the ocean will slowly cleanse itself too, leading to less haze and better air quality all around.

Thursday: Patchy low clouds on the coast with increasing high clouds moving in from the southwest. High clouds will be thickest farther south. Hazy at times with reduced air quality. Highs in the 60s-70s on the coast 80s-90s inland. Breezy for inland valleys in the afternoon.

Overnight: Patchy fog and low clouds for the coast and inland valleys. A few high clouds possible along with patchy drizzle. Coastal lows in the 50s with mid-40s to low 50s inland.

Friday: Increased low clouds early with patchy drizzle early, then becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. Hazy at times with reduced air quality. Highs in the 60s-70s on the coast 80s-90s inland. Breezy at times on the coast. Late in the day, dry northerly winds will pick up over the hills.

Extended: Expect a nice weekend with seasonable temperatures and a few low clouds on the coast. We could see occasional smoke, but it won’t be near as bad as earlier this week. Some warming expected mid-week.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 53ºF
HIGH: 71ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 50ºF
HIGH: 85ºF

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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for September 24^th – 30^th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and near normal precipitation. Note: Little to no precipitation typically falls this time of year.

-El Niño/La Niña STATUS: Neutral
-Forecast into Winter: La Niña Watch

-Area drought status: Moderate drought for much of Santa Cruz & Santa Clara Counties, Abnormally dry on the east shore of the bay into San Benito County. No drought classification for much of Monterey County outside of the Gabilan Range.